By Graham Howe
Anyone for croc schnitzel or a perlemoen burger? There's always something new out of Africa, and novelty from the great chefs of the Cape.
In my epicurean peregrinations across the length and girth of the winelands this year, I've sampled some of the most unusual dishes on the continent, savoured with equally innovative flavours in the wine glass.
Who's for parsnip and nettle soup with a glass of Nouvelle (the newest white variety out of the Cape), buchu blinis with a glass of Mourvedre or rooibos creme brulee with a wooded Viognier?
Or perhaps double-baked Ganzvlei vastrap soufflé with a noble late harvest Chenin Blanc?
Moonlighting for Eat Out: The Restaurant Guide is bloody hard work. The big eat is the equivalent of a southern right wallowing its way across the Atlantic.
All in the line of duty, I've munched through many weekends as the Eat Out reviewer for the winelands and the Overberg, doing a cross-country from Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek to Tulbagh, Montagu and Swellendam.
Along the way, I've rooted out those little off-the-beaten track gems like a prize porker snuffling for truffles. Country kitchens and cellar-door restaurants that use Tannie Annie's heritage recipes.
Going out to lunch with serious intent takes stamina and a healthy appetite. After sampling over 100 restaurants during the last year, I've seen and savoured the great, the good, the bad and the awful. It's tough out there.
Looking back at the most memorable morsels which have passed my lips during 2006, I recall a boudin blanc sausage, home-cured charcuterie platter and milk-poached veal with celeriac gnocchi at Bread & Wine at Moreson winery in Franschhoek.
A meal of quail confit spring-rolls, salmon trout sashimi and tandoori prawns with basmati breyani under the pepper tree at Monneaux also comes to mind. Wood-roasted pork belly and duck-fat potatoes at Terroir in Stellenbosch and impala, tongue and cheek boudin at Le Quartier Francais (021-876-2151), the only South African eatery which made Restaurant UK's Top Fifty in 2005 selected by a top panel of chefs and critics.
A copy of Eat Out 2006 will cost you less than the cost of a main course and provide an essential starter guide to over 900 restaurants researched by 30 top food writers. (If you're an armchair diner, buy the Eat In 2006 version.)
In the meantime, if you're heading south over the season, I'll tempt you with a selection of some of the newest, hottest restaurants in the Cape this summer - at a style and price for all pockets and tastes. It's not all fine dining terroir down here. Rustic country is in.
Before you set off on a gastronomic journey through the Cape, you might want to call ahead and make a reservation. A good table is hard to come by over peak season - especially if you plan to dine at any of the Eat Out Johnnie Walker Top Ten.
If you're exploring the winelands, I've also suggested new country kitchens with a laid back ambience to delight the whole family. What's a summer holiday without a series of long, leisurely lunches in shorts? To whet your appetite, a soupcon of the Eat Out 2006 national winners:
- 95 Keerom (021-422-0765) at its eponymous address in Cape Town, where owner-chef Giorgio Nava creates modern Italian fare in a stunning contemporary setting.
- Ginja (021-426-2368), set in a historic warehouse in Cape Town where renowned chef Michael Bassett creates inspired combinations with a Pacific Rim influence.
- La Colombe (021-794-2390) in Constantia, where frequent-winner chef Franck Dangereux, author of Feast and Constantia Uitsig Cookbook, makes modern French fare.
- Terroir (021-880-8167) at Kleine Zalze, Stellenbosch. Hot culinary duo Michael Broughton and Nic van Wyk seduce with country fare.
- Reuben's (021-876-3772) of Franschhoek. Last year's Eat Out Chef of the Year and Restaurant of the Year serves delicious comfort food in a brasserie-style setting.
- Bosmans (021-863-2727) at the Grande Roche in Paarl. Frank Zlomke serves classic flavours of the Cape menu in the most elegant fine-dining setting in Africa.
- Lynton Hall (039-975-3122) at Pennington, Natal. Richard Carstens, Eat Out Chef of the Year, creates the most original fare in South Africa in a sugar baron's mansion.
- Ninth Avenue Bistro (031-312-9134) in Durban. Chef Carly Goncalves puts a gastronomic Asian spin on a seasonal menu in a stylish bistro which delights locals.
- Yum (011-486-1645) in Greenside, Johannesburg. Chef Dario de Angeli, Eat Out Restaurant of the Year, makes the Top Ten every year with his modern café fare.
- Auberge Michel (011-883-7013) in Sandton. Frederic Leloup, a chef with respect for the natural flavours of ingredients serves classic French fare with no short-cuts.
Adventurous diners might come close to a culinary orgasm called Haiku over the summer holidays. Haiku (021-424-7000), a fabulous new Pan-Asian restaurant in Cape Town opened by restaurateur Sabi Sabharwal (owner of the Bukhara group of North Indian restaurants), was the deserved winner of Eat Out Best New Restaurant.
Behind the Japanese screens and dark Zen tables, a line of Asian chefs weave culinary magic in a series of open glass kitchens with piles of woks, bamboo steamers, hanging Peking ducks and stainless steel tandooris.
The selection of dim sum is infinite with sublime vegetarian and seafood tempura and teriyaki.
If you're anywhere near Hermanus, you might drop into Mariana's Home Deli & Bistro (028-341-0272) in the quaint Overberg village of Stanford. Winner of Eat Out Top Country Kitchen, along with La Petite Normandie (in Ramsgate), the country kitchen run on the banks of a meandering river is a landmark for country chic.
Owner-chef Mariana Esterhuizen sources the veggies from her garden and the rest from local suppliers, reflecting her passion for wholesome flavours from the earth. The seasonal fare changes daily, but try her parsley soup or gorgonzola souffle if it's on the menu.
If you're after a great steak with all the trimmings, carnivores should head down to Belthazar (021-421-3753), a restaurant, grill, seafood and wine bar at the V&A Waterfront. It won Best Steakhouse in South Africa in 2005 in a competition with 70 restaurants around the country.
A stylish grill with its own in-house butcher who cuts and hangs wet and dry-aged Karan beef steaks, Belthazar serves the finest fillet, sirloin, t-bone and rib-eye, along with the biggest selection of wines by the glass. The views of Table Bay from the terrace provide a romantic Cape backdrop.
A braai in the Boland will never be the same again. Munetaka Kimura has opened Megu (021-863-1217), the first yakiniku restaurant in the country. Inside the historic La Concordia (1845), guests cook their own meat and seafood at table on a mini-grill, basted with saki, mirin and soya-based sauces.
Meaning "blessing" in Japanese, Megu is the Zen creation of a chef who worked under Raymond Blanc and at Marc's superlative Mediterranean Restaurant (021-863-3980) in Paarl before moving onto main street.
With 600 goats, 25 cheeses, a goat tower, a cheese shop and over 50 wines, the time came for Fairview cellar to open a bakery, deli and restaurant. Set in the old cellar, The Goatshed (021-863-3609) resembles an old-fashioned farm-store decorated with old tin signs.
The farm workers bake fresh bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, bagettes, focaccia croissants, ciabatta, quiches, rye and sour dough breads to go with wonderful cheese and cured meat platters.
Stellenbosch, the heartland of the winelands, is the under-rated home of an A-Z of cellar and town venues on a cosmopolitan plate. Mana (021-865-2662) is a brand-new culinary destination set in a gabled manor house perched on the hillside at the upper end of Devon Valley.
A colonnade of cypresses, tall palms and Grecian statues find a classical counterpoint in immaculately plated fare on crisp white linen with lilies and lemon walls. British owner-chefs Jon and Heather Taylor wake up jaded palates with their brand-new venture, and exert a mysterious power over ingredients and guests. Expect the unexpected.
"I'm like Mohammed Ali. This is my third comeback," roars Ralph van Pletzen, the jolly 50-something chef. The man who started the culinary renaissance in the winelands at Ralph's and The
Guinea-Fowl is cooking up a storm. Fans, foodies and friends are flocking back to Ralph's cosy new restaurant (021-865-2513) in the Koelenhof wine area of Stellenbosch.
Expect robust, natural flavours and delicate sauces from the classically trained French chef. Moving over to Franschhoek, the new restaurant and cellar at Grande Provence (021-876-8600) is one of THE hot spots this season. The décor is cutting-edge. The stools at the sheet-metal tasting bar are moulded steel tractor seats.
The galvanized tables in the steel-grey dining room are riveted, with studded throne-chairs overlooking a Zen courtyard with a koi pond and art gallery.
Chef Vanie Padayachee puts an Asian spin on a global menu with masala linefish, mussels in miso, tandoori lamb, tempura prawns and roti-wrapped seafood curry. Think passion-fruit fare with mango relish. The spiral cutlery may be metallic but the focus is on pure flavour.
I also came across a few undiscovered gems while scouring the Breede River Valley for country kitchens serving traditional Cape cuisine.
If you turn off the N1 at Touwsrivier, the fruit route through the remote Keisie valley leads through apricot, peach and lemon orchards to Die Stal (082-324-4318) on Kruis Farm near Montagu.
The thatched plaashuis with its whitewashed stoep is a landmark for farm breakfasts, big steaks, oxtail and eisbein.
In Montagu itself, I came across Josephine's (023-614-3939), a restaurant up a peach pip path with a stoep under a pergola of old gnarled vines.
A newcomer on restaurant row on Bath Street, the tarragon interior is a colourful prelude to the fare on the plate. Although Montagu's spice girls also serve entrecote and lamb, vegetarians will want to try their red chickpea and banana curry. Carnivores will love the lamb rogan josh and chicken murgh with garam masala.
If you're headed down the N1 towards Cape Town and looking for good padkos, pop into The Pear Tree (023-342-0947) in Worcester. The old thatched Beck Huis (1827) is home to a maze of dining rooms under the rietdak - and a sun-splashed courtyard with vines, lemon and pear trees.
The menu pays tribute to Tant Kittie Claasen, a legendary local cook, drawing on her recipes for Boland bobotie, vetkoek, roosterkoek, chicken and venison pies. Don't miss the signature blue cheese, biltong and grilled pear salad or the deep-fried blue cheese wedges with fig preserve.
Last but not least, if you re on the road from Swellendam to Riviersonderend on the N2, drop into Zanddrift (028-261-1167). A delightful country kitchen run by Edwina Kohler, renowned Overberg chef who opened the new restaurant at the old Stormsvlei Hotel in 2005. She declares: "I don't have a menu. I ask what people like to eat and concoct dishes." She serves a cold or hot platter at table - a country stew, entrecote with cepes, cream and brandy, and ox tongue with mustard sauce.
l2006 Eat Out - The Restaurant Guide is available at selected Woolworths, Exclusive Books, CNA and Spar stores @ R39,95. See www.eatout.co.za.
- Graham Howe is the winelands reviewer for Eat Out, wine and food editor of Habitat and South African correspondent for Wine & Spirit International of London.
- This article was originally published on page 8 of The Star on December 10, 2005